This Episode on Trump vs. The NFL: A Canceled White House Visit Gets Messy

It is almost ironic how the attempted “non-political celebration” for the Superbowl win of the Philadelphia Eagles, an NFL sports team, has turned into a narrative of our divisive country and, although not unusual, a barrage of tweets from our unsound President. There was a lot of controversy as to why the so-called celebration was canceled. Was it because the “disrespectful” players did not show enough honor towards their nations national anthem, and what many seem to conclude, our nation’s military? Or is it because no one really wanted to show up? Well, it would only be fair to look at both sides.

Let’s start with the president. In doing so, we must go back to last September and look at the relationship between President Trump and the media’s beloved, Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick was gaining a great amount of coverage from kneeling during the national anthem. He did this to show his discontent, and anger, towards America’s often oppressive system towards African Americans and the recurrent problem of police brutality. Yet this act of protest was not always viewed in a positive light, receiving traction and hostility from the news and social media. Particularly from our President. In reference to Kaepernick, Trump stated “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL. owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!” Trump’s opinions and disapproval of the players kneeling during the anthem only grew from there.

Perhaps he realized just how strongly many of his supporters felt about NFL players- true members of American culture- not paying enough respect to the national anthem. “I’m just blown away. If you can’t respect our country then you need to go” said an NFL fan during a NYT interview on the topic. Or maybe Trump realized this NFL controversy posed as a great distraction in the news media, often tweeting about the issue or stirring up discussion in the wake of new information during the Russian interference investigations. Doug Sosnik, the former Clinton White House political director, put it “One of Trump’s typical moves is to toss a bomb out of nowhere to deflect what is really bothering him, in the hopes that the press will be distracted.”

For months Trump took to Twitter to pour out tweets about the NFL. From attacking the game’s ratings “…NFL attendance and ratings are WAY DOWN. Boring games yes, but many stay away because they love our country. League should back U.S.”, to fueling the idea that kneeling is a sign of disrespect “Courageous Patriots have fought and died for our great American Flag — we MUST honor and respect it!  MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump’s relentless tweets covered it all.

It is also not the first time Trump has rescinded an American sports player’s invitation to the White House over disagreements.  On September 23, 2017 Trump tweeted “Going to the White House is considered a great honor for a championship team. Stephen Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!” Steph Curry, the NBA champion, reasoned

“That we don’t stand for basically what our president … the things that he said and the things that he hasn’t said in the right terms that we won’t stand for it. And by acting and not going, hopefully that will inspire some change when it comes to what we tolerate in this country and what is accepted and what we turn a blind eye to.”

Faced with conflict, Trump decided to pull out of the entire visit completely.

And now with this little bit of history of just how riled up our president gets over conflicts within America’s sports industry, we can have a much clearer and closer look at what recently happened involving the Eagles and their White House visit. Trump’s narrative is one that paints a picture of contemptuous, unappreciative, anti-American players. On Monday, Trump stated that many Eagles players “disagree with their President because he insists that they proudly stand for the National Anthem, hand on heart, in honor of the great men and women of our military and the people of our country.” The next day adding “We will proudly be playing the National Anthem and other wonderful music celebrating our Country today at 3 P.M., The White House, with the United States Marine Band and the United States Army Chorus. Honoring America! NFL, no escaping to Locker Rooms!” It is clear Trump poses the NFL players as a threat to American Culture.

He canceled the visit on June 4th. Instead, he plans to host a celebration of America at the White House. In a statement authorized by the office of the press secretary, Trump stated “The Eagles wanted to send a smaller delegation, but the 1,000 fans planning to attend the event deserve better. These fans are still invited to the White House to be apart of a different type of ceremony- one that will honor our great country, pay tribute to the heroes who fight to protect it, and loudly and proudly play the national anthem.” Issued on June 5th, whitehouse.gov added “In other words, the vast majority of the Eagles team decided to abandon their fans. Upon learning these facts, the President decided to change the event so that it would be a celebration of the American flag with Eagles fans.” Trump showed his true discontent with the team.

It would be foolish to say this picture painted of the players is solely coming from Trump. The media has had a great deal of say in this ordeal as well. Fox news, during a news package, displayed images of three Eagles players kneeling, apparently during the national anthem. It turns out the players were kneeling in prayer and they later had to apologize for “reporting unrelated footage.”

Yet with all of these statements, tweets, press releases, and frankly, a hell of a lot of opinions, a lot of facts have been left out. I think it’s time to look at what the Eagles players had to say. To start off, in response to the whole fox news fiasco, Zach Ertz (the pictured player kneeling in the news package) tweeted “This can’t be serious…. Praying before games with my teammates, well before the anthem, is being used for your propaganda?! Just sad, I feel like you guys should have to be better than this…” Ertz is not the only player infuriated by the narrative of NFL players being anti-American/ anti-military. Defensive lineman Chris Long stated in a tweet “Not one Eagles player knelt for the anthem this year. Keep carrying his water to sow division while misrepresenting Christian men.” Players have shown their resentment towards the media. It is clear they do not want to be antagonized for the sake of a political story.

In response to the White House press release from President Trump, Torrey Smith- a player who was planning not to attend the celebration- tweeted “So many lies smh. Here are some facts 1. Not many people were going to go 2. No one refused to go simply because Trump “insists” folks stand for the anthem 3. The President continues to spread the false narrative that players are anti military” Smith did not only show his anger regarding the misinformation being spread about the reasoning as to why the Eagles were not going to the White House, but he showed his disapproval of the “false narrative” of NFL players.

The Eagles twitter account did not include a political stance on the issue. But rather they handled the situation professionally and exactly how an NFL team should. The statement they released really only pertained to the football, paying respect to fans and applauding the great season. “It has been incredibly thrilling to celebrate our first super bowl championship. Watching the entire Eagles community come together has been an inspiration. We are truly grateful for all the support we have received and we are looking forward to continuing our preparations for the 2018 season.”-Philadelphia Eagles.

The Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, shared his honest take on the issue “Disinviting them from the White House only proves that our President is not a true patriot, but a fragile egomaniac obsessed with crowd size and afraid of the embarrassment of throwing a party to which no one wants to attend.” He later added “These are players who stand up for the causes they believe in and who contribute in meaningful ways to their community. They represent the diversity of our nation—a nation in which we are free to express our opinions.” Kenny also slandered Trump’s hypocrisy on the topic of respecting our military, during an interview with CNN. “When he had the chance to serve his country, he ducked out five times…his father got him out of it.” Kenney stated referring to Trump’s five draft deferments during the Vietnam war.

It seems as though Trump blamed the fiasco on the issue of kneeling during the national anthem. Yet in reality, the White House visit was canceled because only ten members from the NFL team were actually going to attend. With two completely opposite narratives running about the white house visit, it sheds light on the issue America is truly facing. Political polarization in the media, as well as extremely divisive views in our country, continue to prevail, and something as simple as a football team visit to the White House turning into a political dilemma proves that.

Featured Image Via Google Images